Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Corporate dinner..with bonus history lesson!

Last night, I drew for a very jovial corporate team meeting...held in the banquet facility of a beautiful old opera house:

The Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware has hosted everything from opera to dramatics, to vaudeville, to lectures ( I'll get to that in a minute) to second-run movies before being restored to the 19th century treasure it is today.
First, some of my caricatures:

This gentleman asked me to inscribe the caricature to his wife for both Mother's Day AND an anniversary...to hoots from his friends, he added, "I'm also going to give her a bar of hotel soap." Hence my little addition.... ;-)

After finishing (to applause!! thank you :-) in my allotted time, the manager of the facility graciously offered to give the night's magician, the Amazing Larry, and myself a quick tour:

The stage was set up for a production of "Porgy and Bess'. We then walked out into the 'Hall of History", an exterior wall of the theater which was now an interior part of the complex--hung with documents, photos and playbills. My eye fell on THIS:

Thomas Nast, (editorial caricaturist and illustrator of both modern-day Santa Claus and Uncle Sam!!) gave a lecture on caricaturing here in 1873!!! I squealed and hopped up and down---and Larry said I wasn't excited enough. ;-)

There were also some very interesting photos of the period hung on original dressing-room doors that were almost caricatures in themselves:

Here are Proprietor Barry (thank you sir!) and Magician Larry in front of a giant print of Old Wilmington:

When I returned to pack up my easel, I was pleasantly surprised to be asked to draw some more--a group caricature, for which I gladly obliged! Thank you for having me!